Dillinger Escape Plan Streaming Ire Works In Its Entirety

Like progressive metal? Like bands with singers from Baltimore? Then get with the program: Dillinger Escape Plan's new album, Ire Works, is streaming on the Dillinger MySpace page.

The official release is November 13 on Relapse Records. Click the album art to pre-order!

PJ Harvey - White Chalk

The unique snowflake that is PJ Harvey released White Chalk just over a month ago, a piano-oriented (Harvey had no piano experience prior to White Chalk) and ethereal effort unlike anything she's released prior. Fitting for Harvey, whose persona shifts shape and styles from one album to the next with, seemingly, no rhyme or reason. Whatever her muse, PJ Harvey manages to mesmerize and break new ground with each release.

The strangely pleasant opener, "The Devil", introduces this higher register PJ Harvey, singing on the outer edges of her vocal range, perhaps as a complement to the piano that sparely drives the album. Only on "Grow Grow Grow" does the more baritone, deep-seated roar of classic PJ Harvey rear its head, and it does so over dancing piano and deceitfully limited percussion. But a strangely pleasant opening becomes quickly discordant with what follows.

The album's first (and possibly only) single, "When Under Ether", says it all. Apparently about the effect of ether on a woman bearing child ("waist down undressed . . . something's inside me, unborn and unblessed), the track is dark, gloomy, and nearly claustrophobic in its constraint and chamber music. Subject matter on the album includes the historical residents of Harvey's home and her blood ancestors ("White Chalk") as well as the brutally killed ("The Piano"). The bleak ambience of this album fits undeniably well with the chill of winter, shorter days and longer nights.

Using many non-conventional instruments (cig fiddle, wine glass, the kitschy and doomed Optigan, broken harp on the apropos "Broken Harp"), White Chalk emits a spartan vibe of rigging whatever is available to make music. Perhaps this is exactly what the ancestral subjects of "White Chalk" did, possessing Harvey to do the same on her eighth studio album. Eschewing the garage punk of Uh Huh Her and electing to adopt a bone chilling sound that gets inside the listener like a spirit or demon takes over its victim, White Chalk compels its listener to heed its rustic sound.

Bruce Springsteen - Magic

On October 2, 2007, Bruce Springsteen marked his return to recording with the E Street Band with the release of Magic. Aptly named, because this album is fantastic evidence of the magic that Bruce and the Band can make together (oh how we've missed you, Clarence Clemons). Magic pulls no punches and is no holds barred in its metaphorical criticisms of the current political climate, the Iraq war, rock radio, and humanity in general.

Perhaps a bit of a backpedal from the post-World Trade Center The Rising, on which Bruce and the E Street Band bled blue for a country unified around a tragedy, Magic is the song of a country divided between that tragedy and a regime that has lied to its people and taken many sons and daughters to their deaths overseas. When Springsteen belts "Who will be the last to die for a mistake?" on "Last To Die," folks from all political camps can't help but wish there was an answer in sight. Optimism steps aside and makes way for criticism and suspicion.

The production of Brendan O'Brien on the album can come off as an affront to those who have been with Bruce since Born to Run. O'Brien's ham-handed production is too big and tries to put an already large band front and center, all at once, so that too much is going on at any given time to enjoy a brilliant lead or solo. However, Clarence Clemons' saxophone always gets its time in the sun, as heard on the standout "Livin' In The Future", probably the most classic Springsteen track on the album and one of the best Springsteen tunes since "Lucky Town".

That a man in his late 50s can write songs that cross generation gaps like "Radio Nowhere" and still stay faithful to the sound that made him famous ("Livin' In The Future", "Girls In Their Summer Clothes") is honorable in itself, but that Bruce can write glass-half-full nostalgia songs and blue-collar anthems as well as wistful burners that have relevance to Boomers, Gen Xers and Gen Y is a testament to his knack as a lyricist and a songwriter. Not only are the songs on Magic of quality, they're catchier than anything Bruce has done since the 80s.

Springsteen's lyrics can border on the repetitive: "I just want to feel/hear your rhythm" incessantly repeats on "Radio Nowhere", "None of this has happened yet" is the mantra of "Livin' In The Future", and so on, ad nauseum, throughout his career. As far back as 1975 on "Backstreets", Bruce was repeating "Hiding on the backstreets" like it was going out of style. But it has not gone out of style. The key element of pop music is repetition, and it continues to work for this guy. Whereas detractors may harp on this element of Springsteen's lyrics, the critical mind beholds the unclear, often nebulous double meanings of his lyrics.

When Bruce says "The girls in their summer clothes pass me by" on "Girls In Their Summer Clothes", is he lamenting about getting older? And on "Gypsy Biker", does "Now I'm countin' white lines and getting stoned" mean lines of cocaine or dotted lines on a long desert highway? And it's entirely possible that "Radio Nowhere" is as much critical of rock radio as it is of an apathetic society.

Magic is a somber album. It is almost the antithesis of Born in the U.S.A.. But it is case-in-point proof of the Boss' ability to speak for an entire class of Americans. Where patriotism swelled into blind allegiance six years ago, it has given way to a patriotism that questions motives and is bridled with trepidation. Where Springsteen twenty years ago enjoyed youth and vitality, he approaches 60 with a cognizance of mortality (the hidden track, "Terry's Song", is about Terry Magovern, part of the Springsteen camp for 23 years, who passed away in July).

This album doesn't break new ground; rather, it is more of Springsteen at his finest. And where it succeeds, it truly is magic.

Kelly Willis - Translated From Love; Free MP3 - "Sweet Little One"

Coming off a five-year hiatus (spent raising four children, so not much of a break), Kelly Willis returns with Translated From Love, a country record with influence of rock, punk (Willis covers Iggy Pop's "Success" on the album), and pop. Translated From Love is full of charm, spark, melancholy, bubble and honky-tonk.

The lead single, "Sweet Little One", is full of cross-over potential, as is the aforementioned Iggy Pop cover, which Willis re-interprets into a country rock dance cut full of electric piano and a meaty bass groove which is destined for jukeboxes everywhere.

Lyrically, Kelly Willis is years ahead of many of her peers in the country music circuit, and being a songwriter (as well as being married to one) puts her in a league of her own. The yearning "Too Much To Lose" should have a fair number of CMT favorites hanging their dusty-brimmed hats in shame.


Free MP3 Download: Kelly Willis - "Sweet Little One"

Cat Power To Release Jukebox January 2008

Picking up where she left off with The Covers Record, Cat Power is doing another covers record, this time called Jukebox. Scheduled for a January release, Jukebox. Loved The Greatest, but I'm going to roll my eyes at the tracklisting. Perhaps I'll change my mind when I hear the songs.


Tracklisting:
01 Theme From "New York, New York" (Frank Sinatra)
02 "Metal Heart" (Cat Power)
03 "Ramblin’ (Wo)man" (Hank Williams)
04 "Song To Bobby" (Cat Power)
05 "Aretha, Sing One For Me" (George Jackson)
06 "Lost Someone" (James Brown)
07 "I Believe In You" (Bob Dylan)
08 "Fortunate Son" (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
09 "Silver Stallion" (Lee Clayton)
10 "Dark End Of The Street" (Dan Penn & Chips Morman; originally sung by James Carr)
11 "Don’t Explain" (Billie Holiday)
12 "Woman Left Lonely" (Janis Joplin)

Nine Inch Nails Free of Label Constraints After Release Of Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D November 20

Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor has gladly announced that he is label-free as of October 8, saying "I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally
free agent, free of any recording contract with any label." On November 20, Reznor will release Halo 25, Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D (Year Zero Remixed) (read a review of Year Zero), which will free him from his long relationship with Interscope Records.

In recent months, Reznor has been quite vocal about his distaste for labels in general, loudly complaining about the high costs of Year Zero in Australia, Interscope's griping about the leaking of tracks from the album, and so on.

Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D will be available digitally (iTunes and Amazon), on vinyl, and on CD. Reznor personally recommends the six-panel gatefold vinyl jacket vinyl edition for its aesthetic appeal. The CD/DVD-ROM edition will come with multi-tracks in GarageBand and Ableton Live format as well as generic WAVE form.

Tracklisting:

1. gunshots by computer: saul williams
2. the great destroyer: modwheelmood
3. my violent heart: pirate robot midget
4. the beginning of the end: ladytron
5. survivalism: saul williams
6. capital g: epworth phones
7. vessel: bill laswell
8. the warning: stefan goodchild featuring doudou n’diaye rose
9. meet your master: the faint
10. god given: stephen morris & gillian gilbert
11. me, i’m not: olof dreijer
12. another version of the truth: kronos & enrique gonzalez müller
13. in this twilight: fennesz
14. zero sum: stephen morris & gillian gilbert

Shuyler Jansen - Today's Remains

Saskatoon (by way of Vancouver) is home to Shuyler Jansen. Jansen's second solo record is vocally reminiscent of Dwight Yoakam and musically influenced by country music from when it was really country, not CMT and civic center commercialized drivel.

Modestly clocking in at just over forty minutes, Today's Remains (Black Hen Music, 2007) opens with a jaunty dramatic ditty ("Pegasus") that introduces ten songs of tales tall and true. With sliding guitars, pedal steel ("Rivals") and dulcet strings (title track), Today's Remains continues Jansen's challenge to storytellers like Willie Nelson and songwriters like Tom Petty, stirring together genres to form a dusty and leathery country record that is unfortunately too clever and well-done to succeed on American country radio.

Key tracks: "Jealous Girl", "Pegasus", "Today's Remains", "Rivals"

Pash Remix feat. Snoop Dogg: "Kill The Rich Boys II"

A few weeks back, I reviewed Pash's newest album, The Best Gun (Exotic Fever, 2007), and raved about the track "Kill The Rich Boys II". Well, DJ Frequency, an old college buddy of Pash, did too and he remixed the track. Quite a double whammy: you get to hear a Pash remix, and you get to learn about Frequency, who has a track on the latest from Snoop Dogg, and is working with Ghostface and Raekwon from the Wu-Tang Clan.



Maybe I've missed it in the three times I listened, but where was Snoop?

Catch Pash at these upcoming dates:

10/18 Brooklyn, NY Matchless Bar CMJ
10/26 Baltimore, MD The Lo-Fi Social Club
10/27 Fredericksburg, VA Wet Paint Fundraiser, 3rd floor studio
10/28 Washington DC The Red and Black
10/31 Fredericksburg, VA The Loft
11/04 Trois Rivieres, Quebec The Pub Cafe
11/05 Montreal, Quebec Bar St. Laurent
11/17 Washington DC The Lab

Nathan Lawr and the Minotaurs - A Sea of Tiny Lights

While it clocks in at a very brief 34 minutes and change, Nathan Lawr & The Minotaurs' A Sea of Tiny Lights (released October 2, 2007) is a soul-infused album taking on elements of funk and jazz and drawing inspiration from many subjects to address a number of timely topics.

Putting down the drumsticks from previous musical incarnations, Lawr grabs the microphone, the guitar, the organ, and comes back to the drums on Tiny Lights, creating a modest record full of mid-tempo songs with swanky beats ("That Moment").

Whereas on his debut, The Heart Beats A Waltz, Lawr seemed a bit skittish, on this album he steps forward with the surefootedness of a songwriter who has found his voice and is willing to stand on a soapbox with a guitar and make a point ("There's A Devil"). Here, instead of experimenting with sounds and instruments and fumbling towards style, Nathan Lawr & The Minotaurs patiently build grandiose and sometimes spooky ("The Glass") compositions that make for one of the best albums of the year coming out of Canada.

The New Amsterdams - At The Foot Of My Rival

On the latest from The New Amsterdams, primary element Matt Pryor (formerly of the Get Up Kids) continues to wow with his adeptness at formulating instantly lovable indie pop songs with a keen mind for lyrical content. Being the third album from The New Amsterdams in two years, not to mention a children's album released by Pryor in the same time period, it is notable that the material hasn't become tiresome or stale.

Opening up with a lo-fi acoustic burner ("Revenge"), At The Foot Of My Rival (Curb Appeal, click the album art above to purchase) quickly turns into an eclectic amalgam of indie rock and pop, with solo acoustics and full-band songs with string and horn The charged "Without A Sound (Eleanor)" is packed with sound and imploding lovers, whereas "Hughes" keeps it lean and "Beacon In Beige" opens up the throttle again with electric guitars, effects pedals, and a band.

Catch The New Amstersdams at The Rock and Roll Hotel in DC on October 18.

Post 700: Dashboard Confessional - The Shade of Poison Trees

New this week from Dashboard Confessional, The Shade of Poison Trees comes touted as a return to acoustic solo roots. Do not, however, expect an expounding on the old standards. Shade is not as instant, as visceral, as The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most or even A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar. Where Dashboard's picture-perfect poster boy unleashed emo onto the mainstream on early records, this album does not have any of the howls and haunts one might expect. Instead, Chris Carrabba has found a new voice: one that is more self-assured and seasoned, but reined in, too.

On what starts off as seemingly a mis-step ("Where There's Gold . . ."), Carrabba eschews the first-person songs of prostration and pain for a bard's tale of a woman who becomes a victim to her own material trappings. The misleading step in this song comes when Carrabba breathes ". . . there's a gold digger." A minor point, but on a casual listen, I'm left wondering when the remix comes out with Kanye. It takes further analysis to realize that what this song really evidences is a growth as a lyricist, penning thinly veiled stories and criticisms of romance and lament.

The rather low-key title track is a heavy-hearted but guarded "what if?", apparently a series of questions all urgently asking the same thing of a potential lover: are you bold enough to try loving someone else? Moving along to the blue-collar rouse of "Matters of Blood and Connection", Dashboard Confessional forgets love and slams a trust-fund baby who tries to run with the 'regular folks', perhaps a nod to Carrabba's own roots and experiences in Boca Raton, FL.

While not as emo on its surface, Shade carries its own weight and marks its niche in Dashboard Confessional's catalog, evidencing the growth (for better or worse) of a young and broken-hearted guy with a guitar into a (still young) and slightly less broken-hearted guy with a collection of guitars and plenty of stories to share from many more areas of influence.

New Regina Spektor Video - "Better"

1) Regina Spektor looks hurt in this video.
2) It's not the album version, it's overdone, and sounds terrible. I want the album version back.



3) Ugh. You were so precious a year ago.

Baltimore's San Serac Goes Professional October 9; Free MP3 - "Professional"

On October 9, Baltimore native San Serac releases Professional. Reminiscent of David Bowie with even a smidgen of Nine Inch Nails, San Serac is breaking new ground with his electro-funk/dance music with brilliant vocals. Catch the sound on October 17 at Sonar.

Free MP3: San Serac - "Professional"

Dashboard Confessional: Ram's Head Live 9/28/07

Forgive me, but I'm skipping the opening acts from this show. Kristen had a birthday this past week, and we also had a death in my family, so we've had mixed emotions the last few days. It was nice to get out on Friday evening after dealing with our personal tragedy to enjoy a show.

Dashboard Confessional kicked off an anticipated solo tour last Friday at Ram's Head Live! in support of a new album, The Shade of Poison Trees, out tomorrow on Vagrant Records. After a first listen, the record definitely puts aside the full-on band style of Dusk and Summer, but lacks the emotion of Swiss Army Romance and other earlier DC albums.

Changing guitars like Christina Aguilera changes wardrobe, Carrabba blasted through songs from his entire catalogue, inspiring sing-along and screaming amongst members of the crowd on songs like "Screaming Infidelities" and the obvious "Vindicated" and "Hands Down" (admittedly my favorite Dashboard song). However this night's crowd was relatively clueless on lesser-knowns including "Carry This Picture".



Speaking of clueless, apparently $31.00 for a ticket isn't enough to cause a room full of Gen-Y kids to shut their mouths and listen to the music. As with the Regina Spektor show last week, it was a battle to hear the music over the chatter of the crowd. Only after forging our way into the middle of the floor were we able to hear reasonably. Note to Ram's Head Live! management, turn it up!

As with any Dashboard Confessional show, it was 50% Chris Carrabba, 50% crowd singing. One member of my party may have suffered a punctured eardrum from the screaming boy behind her. Partly because of easy-to-remember songs, part because of a rabid fanbase, there exists a sense of community among Dashboard fans as they belt out their favorite songs with their icon. The only downside? The burning screams of Chris Carrabba were turned over to the crowd instead of coming from the author himself.

Launching from "The Best Deceptions" to the new song "Thick As Thieves" around to "Again I Go Unnoticed" and "So Long, So Long", Carrabba shared songs in a much more intimate performance as a solo player than recent tours with his band. This comes as a real pleasure to my inner circle which has made many jokes about the rock star persona of Chris Carrabba and a certain violinist in the band.

A solid performance by Carrabba overall is undermined by a sense of complacency. New songs like "Where There's Gold . . ." (following that ellipses is the lyric "there's a gold-digger.") seem to reach for straws of anguish to spawn new material rather than the agony of the scathing "Turpentine Chaser" or, even better, "This Bitter Pill".

Sorry, Chris, but I liked you better when you were shy and put upon.

Another New Dashboard Confessional Track: "Keep Watch For The Mines"

Head over to Dashboard Confessional's MySpace to hear another track from The Shade of Poison Trees, due October 2. The song is called "Keep Watch For The Mines".

My reaction: shrug. I'm excited about the return to the acoustic sound, but this song isn't doing it for me.

The Details: Draw A Distance, Draw A Border

The debut album from Winnipeg's The Details is anthemic from start to finish, each song a heartful lament on the past or a startling thought of what's to come. The gentle chorus of "Hit Parades" propels an unveiled song of pity for those who suffer in war and those unaware casualties of fame. Not only do the melodies create barnstorming songs such as "Reunion Souvenirs" (a new-wave banger and instantly recognizable as the key track of the album and which strangely has the author thinking of Robert Palmer), but lyrical gems like "you've let your hatred rhyme with love" ("A National Anthem") vocalize the discontent of an entire province.

As a lyricist, Jon Plett (along with Sean Vidal) is almost never too ironic, usually sparing listeners from tired and repeated juxtapositions. Instead, we're treated with small victories in the form of "We never quite remember, so I'll carve our names in every fence and barely living tree" ("Underground"), howled with a careful balance of emotion and prescience, as if he knows the pain is only temporary.

Draw A Distance, Draw A Border is captivating from the start. Every track fits the album, and the songs are accessible without being diluted. Masterful pop with more than just a touch of hard rock, The Details live up to their name, giving plenty of attention to what it takes to make a good record.

Click the album art to purchase Draw A Distance, Draw A Border.

Kanye Topples 50 In First-Week Sales

Alright, almost everyone has been talking about it, and I've bought in to the hype: Kanye West beat 50 Cent in album sales last week. Kanye's Graduation smoked 50's Curtis by nearly a third. The former moved 957,000 units according to Nielsen SoundScan, the latter 691,000.

Quite bombastic sales in the face of a crippled album sales industry, where recent chart-toppers have moved less than 200,000 in their first week. According to Billboard.com, Graduation is the best-selling album in the week of release since, ironically, 50 Cent's The Massacre which moved 1.1 million in its debut.

The question remains: Will 50 follow through on his promise to retire if Kanye outsold him by actually bowing out? My guess is no, but I'd love to see him show some class and stay true to his word.

New Idea Society - The World Is Bright And Lonely; Watch The Video For "Don't Sleep"

Formed by Mike Law (of Eulcid), New Idea Society is a project also comprised of Chris DeAngelis, Stephen Brodsky, Mike Ushinsky, and Andrew Schneider. That lineup may or may not be exact, depending on which day you see the lineup. The band's new album, The World Is Bright And Lonely, was just released on Exotic Fever Records (and this post rounds out my recent lovefest for EF's new releases. See also the new Pash: The Best Gun review.)

New Idea Society, as a rule, takes viral hooks and infectious rhythms, sugarcoating dreary prose that is firmly planted in the sullen and borders on the nihilistic. Law's voice wears well the despair that the music deceptively masks on "Dress Shirt". The band eschews the minor chords and emo yelps of certain peers, favoring a dissonance of brighter tones to counter the despondent themes of the lyrics. Also challenged is the 3-minute formula of the popular standard, as the title track "Part II: The World Is Bright And Lonely", an homily directed apparently to someone opening their eyes and finding themselves a day late and a dollar short, breaks the 8-minute mark, and the twelve-track album clocks in at over 50 minutes.

Often spare in its sound ("Press Reverse"), Bright And Lonely is chock-full of subtle instrumental experimentation, and was recorded primarily live, giving the album a natural and warm sound. The vocals are somewhat forward, grabbing the listener's attention without becoming scurrilous or too disparaging. The first single from the album, "Don't Sleep", is the Bright part of New Idea Society's world, while "Dress Shirt" is a more representative sample of the Lonely side. "Don't Sleep"'s jaunt and pop make it an obvious single, while "Dress Shirt" is a close runner-up. The former has an ambience of joy, speaking to the urgency of infatuation, while the latter's guitar melody and wardrobe-inspired lyrics form an anthem for the broken and jaded.


Click the album art above or go to Exotic Fever to purchase the album.

Here's a video for "Don't Sleep" from the album:

Pash - The Best Gun; Free MP3 - "Down"

Say hello to Fredericksburg, Virginia's Pash. Two years after their debut, Pash have delivered The Best Gun, a pop (without the cheese) rock record fueled by galloping drums ("Kill The Rich Boys I & II"), danceable riffs ("Down"), and often heart-shattering lyrics.

Unleashed on Exotic Fever Records on August 28, The Best Gun is crafted with full-rock bangers like "The Battle Ended There" and subtly instrumented, melodic and accessible hits such as "The Best Gun". Urgent vocals powerfully propel The Best Gun, riding the power chords of "What Do We Always Say" and resting on the jangle of "The Promised Land" before sounding off a cataclysm in "Down". Even though Pash can sometimes sound lean for a quartet, the band is always listenable, never pretentious, and crafts clear, bright songs with pop culture potential.

The Best Gun is a rapid-fire 11 song repertoire, and the album's loud report will leave your ears ringing long after all of Pash's bullets have left the chamber on this release.

Click the album art or visit Exotic Fever at exoticfever.com to buy the CD.

Free MP3: Pash - "Down"

Get A Free MP3 of Dashboard Confessional's "Thick As Thieves"

That's right! Go to Dashboard Confessional's MySpace and download the MP3 of "Thick As Thieves" for free, before the album Shade of Poison Trees comes out on October 2! There is also a contest to create the new video for "Thick As Thieves". The contest ends October 5. Even if you're not a creative type individual, go watch Chris Carrabba's lo-fi video introducing the contest, and laugh at his tilted brim.

Oh yeah, watch the first live recording of "Thick As Thieves":